Wrest Park: Lost and found

Wrest Park is an exceptional rarity: a house in the style of an 18th-century French chateau set within grounds that contain one of the few remaining formal gardens of the early 18th century. These gardens have been improved and extended by successive generations of the de Grey family, owners of Wrest for over 650 years until 1917, so that a walk through the gardens at Wrest today is a journey through 250 years of garden history. Since 1939 the house and gardens have been in institutional use, the rooms cleared of their fine furniture, and the gardens simplified. English heritage took over the site in 2006 and has embarked on a 20-year programme of restoration.